Telecom Lead America: Ruckus Wireless announced that it
has been selected by Time Warner Cable to supply smart Wi-Fi equipment to
extend Time Warner’s broadband services to an increasingly mobile subscriber
base.
Time Warner Cable, with more than 15 million customers,
is deploying Ruckus 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi systems within indoor public venues,
such as stadiums, and in select outdoor locations.
“Subscribers now expect their broadband services to
be accessible wherever they go, and Wi-Fi is a great way to make this happen
if it’s fast and reliable,” said Mike Roudi, senior vice president of
Mobile Services at Time Warner Cable.
Ruckus is working with Time Warner Cable for deploying
dual-band, outdoor, strand-mounted Wi-Fi access points that integrate a DOCSIS
3.0 cable modem for backhauling Wi-Fi traffic over Time Warner Cable’s existing
cable plant.
Ruckus and Time Warner will also be associating to extend
the company’s branded-broadband services within high-traffic environments using
specialized, ultra high-capacity Wi-Fi access points designed for stadiums and
large public venues.
“Time Warner Cable clearly understands the strategic
importance of Wi-Fi for carriers and is one of the more aggressive players in
the wireless land grab currently underway,” said Selina Lo, president and
CEO of Ruckus Wireless.
At the beginning of 2012, Wi-Fi accounted for 63.4
percent of all smartphone-originated data traffic within the United States,
according to Mobidia.
Rising smartphone penetration rates and the successful
attachment of data plans to those devices will grow the value of small-screen
access revenues to operators to more than $230 billion by 2016, according to
Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts.
Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi is designed to address issues by
steering Wi-Fi signals over the fastest signal paths using patented adaptive
antenna technology. This technology allows Time Warner to mitigate interference
while providing more efficient transmission and reception of Wi-Fi signals
using specialized technology that accounts for changing device orientation.
For cable operators, Wi-Fi is viewed as a disruptive
technology that allows them to compete in the mobility market. Wi-Fi offers
MSOs multiple opportunities to increase revenue, improve customer retention,
offer wholesale access and offload fees that MSOs have had to pay to
traditional mobile network operators.
To date, Ruckus has shipped over 3 million smart Wi-Fi
systems around the world and has raised $75 million in funding from premier
investors such as Meritech Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, SingTel, Focus
Ventures, Sutter Hill, Motorola, T-Ventures, Telus Ventures, and Firelake
Capital.
